Sales-slip



rsenooa' WILLIAM HARRIS BRUEN, or DULUTH, MINNESOTA.

SALES-SLIP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 7, 1920.

Application filed January 23, 1918, Serial No. 213,281. Renewed October 11, 1920. Serial No. 416,293.

To all to hem it may concern- Be it known that. l, lViLLiAM H. BRUEN, a

itizen of the United States, residing at Duluth. in the county of St. Louis and State of lnlinnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sales- Slips, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing. This invention relates tov sales tickets or slips used in connection with the sale of articles, and particularly applies to such articles being sold at retail.

A further specific use of the invention is in connection with a selling method wherein the practice is employed of reducing the sales price on an article at regular predetermined periods until the price is reduced to nothing and the article given away.

One object of the invention is to provide a slip to be attached to the article being offered for sale upon which is indicated characters and figures designating certain information respecting the article which is of interest both to the sales person and the prospective purchaser and from which deductions may quickly be made as to the sales price of the article in any of the predetermined periods during the time the article is on sale.

Another object-is to provide a ticket or slip attachable to an article for sale which furnishes conclusive information respecting the reduction in price of the article and which is elsewhere advertised for sale under this method.

Another object is to provide a novel method of selling articles by a successively diminishing sales price in which it becomes impossible to deceive prospective purchasers as to the actual price of the article from week to week.

Other advantageousfeatures of the invention w1ll appear in the further descr1p-- tion thereof.

Referring to the accompanying drawings forming part of i this application and in which like reference characters indicate like parts:

The front view of a slip is shown as having the preferred form and characters printedthereupon and illustrating certain other marking as an example of its use.

The slip is of a narrow vertically elongated form and is designed to be folded horizontally transverse the center thereof before being attached to an article.

In the preferred arrangement as shown in the drawings I have illustrated a space 1 across the, top of the slip in which may be printed the name of the house, shop or business organization using the slips and where- 'inI have shown the words John Doe app arel shop.

Directly below this space is delineated two narrow columns of spaces indicated by the numerals 2 and 3, the column 2 being adjacent the left edge of the ticket and the column 3 preferably just to theright of the center of the ticket.

Intermediate of these narrow columns is a third wider column a and a like column to the right of the column 3.

All of the horizontal lines transverse the slip are spaced equidistant except those forming the two uppermost spaces which are-approximately twice the depth of the other spacings.

The two upper spaces in the column 2 have printed therein abbreviations or characters representing the department in which the article to be labeled is found, and the articles individual number or designating character as Dept. and No. i

In the like spaces in column 3 are abbreviations or characters indicating the key and the cost as Key and Ct.

In the smaller spaces below these two sets of abbreviations or characters are placed numbers from 1 to 52 which represent the number of weeks in a year commencing with 1 under the abbreviation No. The spaces which occur in the middle of the slip I prefer to leave blank as at Sfor the reason. that the line of folding occurs at this point and to have figures or writing in these spaces would result in blurring or inconvenience which is better avoided though not absolutely necessary.

All of the above described figures, abbreviations and characters are preferably printed upon the slip, they being thus prepared in quantities desired.

Now when a slip thus printed is to be placed upon an article, in the large spaces in columns 1 and 5 at the right of the abbreviations are placed manually, those figures or letters giving the desired information respecting the article both for the house and a prospective purchaser.

The information most essential to the purchaser or public is the original sales price of the article which is placed in the wide column after the numeral 1, and the key which represents the amount to be deducted from the sales price each week.

In the example illustrated, the article to be labeled with the sli is in Dept. A, is numbered 13, cost X (houses private mark) the original sales price is $80.00, the key (or amount reduced each week) is $1.50.

With an article thus labeled it is quite evident that any one may. by viewing the slip determine either mentally or by figuring, the exact sales price of the article in any week during the year.

Now, inasmuch as it is inconvenient to keep in mind the number of the week in the year by the average person, one essential step in this novel method is that of advertising or keeping conspicuously displayed before the public the number of the week of the year.

. This step is not taken for the simple purpose of attracting a stranger to there being something for sale at any particular store or by any particular plan but for the purpose of refreshing the memory of one or more persons, who have already viewed the article and become desirous of purchasing same when the price has sufficiently lowered, thus stimulating rivalry among prospective urchasers.

And y the use of the novel slip illustrated in connection with such announcements of the successive weeksas they occur the exact sales price of the article is available to the public at all times.

If so desired the sales price for each week may be entered in the space provided there- 7 for, but it is preferred to have the salesman do this when requested, for if one prospective customer sees that another has, that same week, had the price figured and entered, he will be more anxious to watchindicating the original sales price and the weekly declining selling price which is arrived at by deducting the key, comprising intersecting transverse and vertical rulings to provide columns and spaces comprising designations representing the words department, keys, number and cost, delineated spaces opposite said designations in which to place characters, indicating said department, key, number and cost, a plurality of columns of numbers from 1 to 52 and spaces opposite said numbers substantially as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM HARRIS BRUEN.

l/Vitnesses:

W. II. DENHAM, S. Gno. SrEvENs. 

